Compassionate Mind Training for Teachers (CMT-T)

Overview

Literature has reported the emergence of various mental disorders in teachers at this level, including common mental disorders (CMDs) such as depression and anxiety, leading to increased job turnover and detrimental to the teaching-learning process. To prevent and promote mental health in this professional population, compassion-based interventions have proven effective, especially in situations of distress, by reducing fears of compassion and self-criticism, considered preventive factors for depressive and anxiety disorders. Given the growing evidence of the benefits of compassion for mental health, and the prevalence of common mental disorders in elementary school teachers, aggravated by the new coronavirus pandemic, this project aims to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of Compassionate Mind Training for Teachers (CMT-T) on the mental health of elementary school teachers in the public education system in the city of Aracaju.

In school settings, compassion-centered approaches have the potential to improve psychological well-being for all community members, including students, staff, parents, and teachers, by prioritizing the caring motivational system . This highlights the need to incorporate these programs into teacher training and schools. This recommendation is supported by international guidelines for promoting health and well-being, issued by organizations such as the United Nations General Assembly. In the European Union, and in countries such as Portugal, there are official government recommendations that emphasize the importance of fostering health literacy and socio-emotional skills in school settings, aiming for health and psychological well-being. Given the recognition of the problems arising from negative indicators involving teachers' mental health, evidence is found in different countries of interventions based on compassion and mindfulness, with effective results among teaching staff . Within the scope of compassion, the Compassionate Schools Research Initiative has implemented and evaluated the effectiveness of Compassionate Mind Training for Teachers (CMT-T), a six-session program based on the original version of CMT, in schools in Portugal and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, the CMT-T program was implemented with 70 teachers and support staff, and the results indicated a positive evaluation of the practices and their usefulness in dealing with emotional difficulties. After participating, the teachers in this study also showed lower levels of self-criticism and increased self-compassion. In Portugal, two studies demonstrated the effectiveness of CMT-T on mental health indicators, reducing fear of compassion, and reducing self-criticism among teachers. The first was an uncontrolled pilot study with elementary school teachers. Post-intervention measures indicated an increase in flows (participants' compassion for others and compassion directed toward themselves) and a reduction in depression and stress levels. Furthermore, when self-criticism was controlled, there was a decrease in levels and an increase in job satisfaction and self-esteem among the participants. Following the pilot study, a randomized, longitudinal clinical trial in Portugal, conducted with 55 elementary school teachers in the experimental group and 40 teachers in the control group, indicated that participants in the CMT-T program had improved indicators of self-compassion, compassion for others, and affection, as well as decreased fears of compassion, anxiety, depression, and self-criticism, with medium to large effect sizes. The same study indicated that, after three months of intervention, teachers in the experimental group maintained the same results, with the exception of self-compassion, and the program's feasibility results demonstrated that the modules on cultivating the calming system and developing a compassionate mind were the most helpful for the participants . Therefore, the results presented by the studies in the United Kingdom and Portugal highlight the importance of reducing self-criticism and fears of self-compassion to improve mental health outcomes, such as anxiety and depression, in elementary school teachers. Finally, CMT-T represents an intervention modality suitable for Basic Education teachers in Brazil, to face the contemporary difficulties of school environments, by proposing a shift from the predominance of motivational systems based on threat and competition to a motivational set related to affiliation/compassion, with positive potential for promoting the mental health of basic level educators, such as depression and anxiety. Furthermore, given the growing evidence of the benefits of compassion for mental health and the prevalence of common mental disorders among basic education teachers , aggravated by the new coronavirus pandemic , it is timely to investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of Compassionate Mind Training for teachers (CMT-T) on the mental health of Basic Education teachers in Brazil, specifically in the public education system of the city of Aracaju.